My friend, Sherry Austin, a highly acclaimed author and genuinely interesting person, has brought up the topic of my blog. As I have said before, I hate to have to write when people pester me to do it, but, since she really hasn't been pestering me and she is the only one who ever mentions missing what I have to say, I guess I will give it another try.

So much has happened since I last wrote in the middle of last year. I am now the grandmother of four children ages 4, 6, 8, and 10, thanks to my son and his wife who adopted them from Brazil. They are beautiful. I loved them from the first time I saw a photo of them and when they arrived at JFK on December 21st, 2009, and ran to greet us it was as though they had been on a trip and were coming home. That was the biggest surprise, that everything seemed so familiar.

After we had wrangled four children into warm coats, scarves, hats, and gloves, and all the baggage for a family of six was squeezed into a minivan, three vehicles made their way to the IHOP in Queens for our first meal together. Thirteen of us around a big table didn't seem at all unusual. We were obviously a family.

I just want to be with my grandchildren all of the time, but I am having to be patient because they have to adjust to being a family in a new place with new routines and they have to learn to rely on their parents for everything.

They came to visit a few days after Christmas. We met at church on Sunday and took up an entire pew right up in the front where we usually sit. The children greeted us in the parking lot with hugs and kisses and 'I love you'. They call us Papi (the Portugeuse version of Poppee, which my husband called his grandfathers) and Vovo (Portugeuse for grandma) and it was such a joy to hear those names. My youngest granddaughter sat on my lap for most of the service and every time the word love was mentioned in scripture, or prayer, or song, or the message, she would reach her hand up to the back of my neck and pull my head down to where our cheeks were touching and say, "Love. I love you." That made my heart leap with joy.

After two days at our house I could sympathize with the people of Richmond after Sherman left! We are definately going to have to discuss Vovo's rules when they come again. Since we had been admonished that everything had to go through parents and not grandparents and any discipline had to come from parents, we just sat back and watched chaos reign supreme. We shook our heads and smiled a lot.

We made gifts for the children -- tool boxes for the two boys, a doll cradle for the youngest girl, and a keepsake box for the oldest girl -- and they seemed to be a big hit. Our youngest son spent a good bit of time on his break from college helping finish the projects. I made bedding for the cradle and had enough fabric left from a big quilt I made for the youngest granddaughter to make a matching quilt for the doll.

All in all, we had a wonderful time together after Christmas and are looking forward to many more visits.

Over the weekend we called to see how the first week of school went since we had resisted the urge to call every day for an update. I always ask anyone I talk to if it is a good time for a chat. The first call was answered by our daughter-in-law and her answer was, "Could you call back in 2 minutes? Or a minute and a half?" The second call was answered by my son, who sounded flustered, and he was willing to chat a few minutes. Only several sentences into the conversation he called to his wife, "Did you know there is a car in our driveway? Hold on a minute. (Background noise.) Can I call you back later when things calm down a bit?" My husband replied, "Sure, son. We'll talk to you in 21 years." That was Saturday and we got a call late on Monday afternoon as our son was walking home from work.

So, that's all I have time for today. Hope that is satisfactory for now.